Playing Games
by The Angel of London
Summary: 4 entries for 'The Party Challenge' on HPFC by OnTheSideOfTheAngels. [T for 'mild' swearing, methinks]. No specific pairings.
1. Hide and Seek

**The Party Challenge**

_**Hide and Seek: **__Two choices. Your character is either hiding from someone/something, or your character must be trying to find someone/something._

She crossed the wide hallway quickly, trying to run as silently as possible. She reached the shadows just moments before the regular patrol passed by. Swiftly, she pressed her body against the wall, shifting towards the darkest corner of the hallway.

The sounds of Alecto Carrow's loud and obnoxiously expensive looking shoes covered the near unnoticeable noise made by her clothes against the stone walls. She held in her breath slightly, trying to calm her breathing, but, once the Death Eater disappeared from view, she let out a big sigh.

Less quieter but faster than before, she emerged from the shadows and started running towards the connecting corridor Carrow had come from. Again, she heard shuffling and hurriedly looked for a hiding place.

A large wardrobe caught her eye and she rushed to it, still indecisive. The increasing volume and speed of the footsteps warned her of the unknown person's proximity, so, with little hesitation, she jumped in the wardrobe and carefully closed the doors, leaving a small space big enough for her to see outside.

As she tried to stand in a way so that she didn't lean on the doors when looking though the gap, she felt a stabbing pain in her foot. It was a sudden and sharp pain that lingered. Whenever she stood, she felt _something _dig into her foot, so, to feel less pain, she had to stand on her right leg.

She'd been so distracted she'd forgotten someone was coming, and, with a start, she realised that her exclamation of pain could've alerted them to her presence in the wardrobe.

Tentatively, she peeked through the gap to see another eye looking at her fixedly. "Fuck!" She shouted as she jumped in surprise and lost her balance. She fell towards the doors and, as the person had backed away, fell out of the furniture, landing on her stomach on the cold, hard floor.

She grabbed her foot, turning it so she could see why it hurt so much, and she felt a bit nauseous at the blood seeping through her sock. She carefully removed her sock, cursing again as it continuously hurt. She saw a small nail poking out of the foot, and she felt glad, as she pulled it out, that it wasn't too deep in to start with.

"How did that happen?" She turned to see a boy with a green tie looking at her curiously. Well, more than at her, at her bleeding foot.

However, she avoided his question and asked one herself, "what are you doing scaring me like that? I thought you were a... _Professor_." She said, for lack of a title to call the supposed Professors Carrow and Snape. "They're patrolling the corridors all the time."

"I'm a Slytherin," he told her as an explanation, which, to her, made perfect sense. Slytherins were, for the most part, safe from the cruelties of the Death Eaters at Hogwarts.

"I stepped on a nail in there," she pointed to the wardrobe, before standing up painfully. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to get going." Taking a few steps, she realised the pain, although still there, was much duller and bearable than before.

Suddenly, she felt two arms holding her up, and the pain on her foot was even less noticeable. Realising the Slytherin was helping her stand, she struggled to get out of his grip for a few minutes, ignoring his amusement at her movements.

She gave up and simply tried to advance, hopping on her right leg and he stopped her from losing balance and falling over.

Again, she heard footsteps other than theirs and, with a sigh of annoyance at having to hide every so often, she pushed her companion away from her. With no support, she fell to the floor just as Amycus Carrow, the nastier of the brother-sister duo, turned the corner.

"Shit."

With a nasty grin, he sped up as she approached the lone Gryffindor, not seeing the Slytherin to the side. "What do we have 'ere? A little Gryffindor out after hours..." He grinned a feral, preying grin, which made his appearance all the scarier, but she didn't cower – not visibly. She jutted out her chin and started defiantly at the Death Eater. "You're coming with me," and with that, he grabbed her arm and, digging his nails into her skin, pulled her along to the dungeons.

Behind Carrow's back, she mouthed instructions to the Slytherin, subconsciously wondering why she was asking him to risk getting in trouble. But when he nodded in the affirmative, she knew that he'd do it for her.

But, for now, she had to try and survive the Carrows and Filch.

**Meh, I've no idea how I got from 'hiding' to all that beeswax with the Carrows and that Slytherin. I kind of sort of like it though, so I'll leave it like this!**

**So, to recap, this is my first entry – out of four, I think – for the challenge named in the title. **

**I'd say it is not entirely DH compliant, but I'm not sure if it is canon or not... Doesn't matter anyways...**

_**Words: **__782_

_**Posted: **__7 January 2012_


	2. Pictionary

**The Party Challenge**

_**Pictionary: **__In this game you are forbidden to speak. Write a fic with no dialogue._

Prompt: Dust

It was an old house, and unused, it seemed, for a couple of decades.

Seeing the unusually unkempt building with an untidy front yard brought out some memories that, while not enjoyable to make, made him feel nostalgic, for some reason.

With a silent swish of his wand, the door unlocked and he smelt years worth of dust once he stepped inside. Everything, from the floors to the furniture left behind that summer of '97, was covered in a layer of dust that was none too thin.

The hallway still retained that wooden flooring he remembered falling onto countless times, and the stairs were still covered in that hideous carpet his Aunt had insisted be installed so her darling son wouldn't slip in his childhood running and break his neck.

He went straight upstairs, ignoring the ground floor for the moment. The dust dirtied the stairs beyond help, and he grinned at imagining his Aunt's distress if she were to see her prized house now.

He came across Dudley's second bedroom – later known as his own bedroom, a proper bedroom – and he opened the door carefully, cringing at the sound the hinges made. Again, everything was as they'd left it so long ago, and he saw how his old trunk – full of all the Hogwarts textbooks he could fit – was pushed away to a dark corner.

The rest was uninteresting, just broken toys of Dudley's, so he darted to his old trunk, prising the lock open with his own hands.

With a grunt, he pulled the lid up and he saw his sixth year Potions book first of all, and, with it, memories from that year as vivid as ever.

With every item he retrieved, another instance of his Hogwarts career came to mind. _The Monster Book of Monsters _[now thankfully dead still] reminded him of Buckbeak and Hagrid, whereas his collection of Weasley sweaters all took him to Christmas with Sirius.

It was an emotional few hours, and he ignored the sun moving across the sky. He concentrated on the trunk and, maybe, closure.

_HPHPHP_

He emerged from his old room with red rimmed eyes and immediately went downstairs, forgoing his cousin and uncles' rooms, as well as the guest one – they were probably almost empty. Instead, he walked, ignoring how he left footprints in the dust, and tentatively opened the cupboard door. The same cupboard under the stairs where he'd lived for ten years of his damned life.

The stale air hit him hard, as the smell of urine overtook all other smells. He banished the offending bucket and inhaled the somewhat cleaner air.

His eyes caught sight of an old blanket. Matted with decades old sweat, blood and dirt, it didn't look to be in a good condition at all. He smiled sadly at the few dead spiders caught on the loose threads.

He browsed his flimsy shelves – two of them – and took his old collection of books. Discarded and rescued books such as a large hardcover book of fairytales including _Hansel and Gretel _or _The Gingerbread Man_ [which Dudley had hastened to get rid of as soon as he'd received it]. On the other shelf he only had broken old toys, mostly loose LEGO pieces he'd scavenged. He left those where they were.

With his shrunken trunk in pocket and the books in his arms he went to his last stops; the kitchen and the garden.

The kitchen remained the same, with a large hole where the cooker once sat. The fridge was missing but the washing machine was left behind. Joined to the kitchen, the living room was distinguished from it by the furniture and the carpeting – contrasting against the tiling for the eating area.

From the large windows he saw the garden he'd tended to for so many years now grown to large proportions, similar to plants in the greenhouses. He decided to skip that part as well, and retraced his steps to the front door.

Sparing a look at the empty coat hanger and shoe rack, he opened the door and, locking it behind him, walked away from his childhood.

That small expedition did him well, somehow.

**No dialogue! HIP HIP for me.**

**It's alright, I'd think. **

**I haven't posted since the 7th or something, but I've been unable. Between having my birthday on the 8****th**** and starting school after a very lazy Christmas... Anyways, I'm here now, instead of at school, because it's been snowing like mad.**

**On Friday we were let out after THREE classes because of the snow, on Saturday it was icy, and, yesterday, it snowed soooo much... So today going to school is optional – decision of the parents. My mum rocks sometimes. **_Shh, but she let's me skip school for no reason sometimes. Hehehe._

**Yeah, so, please, **review and favourite**, if you will. It means a lot to me, even if it's [constructive] criticism. (:**

_**Words: **__693_

_**Posted: **__21 January 2012_


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